Daily details from the garden to bring you inspiration throughout the year
The cabbage family must be a good-natured clan. Have you noticed that so many of their flowers seem to have twinkly little eyes, set among a profusion of laughter lines? This intruded upon my attention a few weeks ago when looking at wallflowers (Day 106), but it’s equally the case with honesty (Lunaria annua), and more evident with the more common purple variety than the refined white version. Most of us know this plant for the seedheads – the papery discs suggesting its botanical name – and it can come as a bit of a shock to discover that the plant spends the spring and early summer as something of a thick-set biennial with unprepossessing foliage (though the dark purple leaves of L. annua ‘Chedglow’ are a quite special). But if you spot something winking at you in a familiar manner from the middle of a border, you can bet it’s this brassica.
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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, writer, photographer, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking this image.